Demonlover

Demonlover features a score by art-punk band Sonic Youth that perfectly captures the essence of the film: deliberately abrasive, rapidly pulsing, electronic black noise that is designed to put the viewer on edge but ultimately signifies nothing. A discombobulated, pretentious, psycho-sexual excursion into the cold-blooded, under-the-table fringe of 21st century corporate porn, Demonlover is a self-important drama in which poisoning, kidnapping, breaking and entering, ransacking, blackmail, and brainwashing are all in a day's work for dastardly-but-insecure conglomerate negotiator Connie Nielsen (Gladiator, One Hour Photo) and her colleagues (Charles Berling, Chloe Sevigny, and Gina Gershon). But director Olivier Assayas (Irma Vep) is far more interested in discomforting close-ups of pornographic imagery (some even suggest rape and torture) than he is in letting his capable cast build character-based tension. Illicit conspiracies add up to an unimaginative, transparently exploitive shock ending that fulfills the director's quest for unnerving intensity, but does so to the detriment of the movie, since he's clearly more interested in shock itself (and vague, meaningless allusions to some unspoken, deep-seated cultural malignancy) than he is in telling a coherent, compelling story. Not recommended. [Note: DVD extras include 21 minutes of separate interviews with director Olivier Assayas, and costars Connie Nielsen, Charles Berling, and Chloe Sevigny, as well as trailers and weblinks. Bottom line: a small extras package for a disappointing film.] (R. Blackwelder)[DVD Review--Sept. 21, 2004--Demonlover: Special Edition: Unrated Director's Cut runs roughly two minutes longer than the original release and includes a 57-minute behind-the-scenes documentary, the 30-minute featurette “SY NYC 12/12/01: The Demonlover Sessions” on scoring featuring composers Sonic Youth, a 39-minute “Q&A with Olivier Assayas” at Ohio State University's October 2003 Wexmer Center for the Arts screening of the film, interviews with director Olivier Assayas, costars Connie Nielsen, Charles Berling and Chloe Sevigny, cast/director filmographies, weblinks and a trailer. Bottom line: more juicy footage and a slew of docs do not--unfortunately--make this a better film.]